Thousands of new jobs despite the energy crisis

By Dimitris Katsaganis

Full-time contracts continue to occupy the first place among the new contracts, despite the “invasion” of the negative consequences of the energy crisis. As the data of the “Ergani” system show for the first half of 2022, the new full-time contracts (8 hours , 5 days) made up 54.8% of the total, with the remaining 45.2% concerning part-time and rotating employment contracts.

This percentage, although lower than that of the corresponding period in 2021 (59.2%), is higher than in both 2020 and 2019. In the first half of 2019, the percentage of full-time contracts was only 48.3%, with the remaining 51.7% relating to flexible employment contracts.

In 2020-2021, there was an increase in new full-time contracts, despite the pandemic, especially due to the employment support measures taken by the government, as analysts at Capital.gr point out. The lifting of these measures together with the lifting of the measures to limit economic activity (with the aim of stopping the spread of the coronavirus) brought about a reduction in the percentage of new full-time contracts, but not to a point below the percentage they had in 2019, that is, before the pandemic.

This positive news on the front of new employment contracts marches side by side with that on the front of unemployment reduction.

According to ELSTAT’s most recent report, unemployment fell to 12.1%, i.e. more than 5 percentage points compared to 2019 and 3 points compared to June 2021. As the Ministry of Labor points out, unemployment is also decreasing youth unemployment, while overall unemployment is back to 2010 levels.

On the same side, it is emphasized that lower taxes and lower insurance contributions encouraged investments and therefore the creation of new jobs. The same applies to the facilitation of licensing but also to the labor law 4808/21 which strikes the right balance between supporting the competitiveness of businesses and protecting employees. The significant contribution of the programs of the Public Employment Service (DYPA) is also noted, the rates of which tripled compared to the period before 2019.

In more detail, ELSTAT announced that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in June 2022 rose to 12.1% compared to 15.0% in June 2021 and 12.5% ​​in May 2022.

The employed amounted to 4,148,431 people, marking an increase of 155,318 people compared to June 2021 (+3.9%) and an increase of 12,020 people compared to May 2022 (+0.3%).

The unemployed amounted to 572,109 people, marking a decrease by 130,976 people compared to June 2021 (-18.6%) and by 17,233 people compared to May 2022 (-2.9%).

People under the age of 75 not in the labor force, or “people outside the labor force”, i.e. people neither working nor looking for work, stood at 3,110,882, down 55,254 from June 2021 (-1.7%) and an increase of 2,560 people compared to May 2022 (+0.1%).